An Open Letter to the Jewish People regarding the New Testament
Shalom! We feel very blessed to address these matters with those who share our ancestry and lineage. However you classify your Jewish faith, Reconstructionist to Chabad or all points in between, or whether you carry little or no faith in the Master, we’re confident you will have not heard what we’re about to say.
With virtually all the criticism we have heard over the last 2,000 years from all branches of Judaism over the controversies of the “New Testament” and Christianity itself, we are in relative agreement.
The “New Testament” is unavoidable, even by total rejection of it.
This fact may seem overly obvious or rather unpleasant, but either way it’s true. The “New Testament” has long been one of the most powerful forces driving global spiritual trends that have a direct bearing on the existence and quality of life of the Jewish people. The very reason why so many evangelical Christians support the state of Israel is bound within its prophecies regarding the advent of the Acharit haYamim (Latter Days). The “New Testament” is also responsible for ripping a vision of the Tanakh—albeit an imperfect vision—from our ethnic group and into the broader world. Yes, Greek translations also contributed before the Common Era, but history also shows that what began was magnified many times over and solidified by both sides of a debate that began 2,000 years ago.
Whatever the ultimate truth may be, Jewish history remains incomplete without including the full breadth of interpretive discussion and discord that arose out of First Century Israel. Even if we were to deny every word, indeed every possible interpretation of those words in its pages, we cannot ignore it. If we cannot ignore it then we need to understand the various perspectives apart from any faith-based decisions regarding the message.
We need to re-frame the contours of our definitions.
Through two millennia of nearly constant pain, pogroms and holocausts, the easy road has been to employ shortcuts and quick classifications. The “New Testament” to many is simply a piece of heretical trash that our enemies used against us to try to destroy us. Everyone knows the Crusaders slaughtering Jews in Jerusalem while quoting from their New Testament Bibles. We know Hitler used polemical phrases like “synagogue of Satan” . Such uses have been hateful and worthy of reproach on all levels, but ultimately they are religious misapplications.
There is no doubt whatsoever that, regardless as to the endless speculations on the matter, ultimately our only “Moshiach,” our only “Savior” is Almighty Elohim. He is One and He is exclusive. The debate should never have degenerated away from this fact. We need to affirm that the real debate is not THAT Elohim saves but HOW He saves. What is the mechanism or agency? What is the timing? Most importantly, what does “salvation” itself really mean? Salvation from what? From Greco-Roman Hades (Hell)? From the Romans? From ourselves?
Errors in the Greek New Testament
• Lepers could not own houses two miles from Jerusalem and throw dinner parties for other Jews to attend. If a person with leprosy is cured they can no longer called a Leper which would be slander.
• Did leading Bible scholars not realize that at least half a dozen prophets from Tanakh were residents of the Galilee?
• These same Bible experts claim “we were never slaves” and deny the Exodus?
• Could eunuch from Ethiopia can legally enter and worship in the Temple?
Notwithstanding matters of Godhead idolatry, Trinity, Shabbat to Sunday, etc., writings that have been unquestioningly accepted by many Christians. Aramaic plays a role in that Semitic continuum. It is far deeper than having a line from Genesis and portions of Esther and Daniel in the Aramaic language. Aramaic is entrenched but it hides within our familiar Hebrew square script. If you ask the rabbis what the technical name for our “Hebrew” script is, they will say ktav ashurri, “Assyrian Writing” – and the Assyrians wrote and spoke in Aramaic. That is why the sages have told us:
“My son, do not lightly esteem the Aramaic language,
for the Holy One, blessed be He, has seen fit to give it voice in the Torah
and the Prophets and the Writings.”
Palestinian Talmud, Sotah, 7.2
Jews don’t attend a ben mitzvah, we use Aramaic bar. Mothers don’t feel their child’s resheh but their Aramaic keppie (head). We toggle between these languages unconsciously, our liturgy from Talmud to Zohar, Kaddish to Amidah, reflects the co-mingling of two languages. At a minimum, the Jewish world must at least investigate the language of Yeshua to determine whether he really said what others claim he said. There is obviously far more depth to Yeshua’s kernel-seed teachings what appears within the surface language of the Greek New Testament.
